Slide Title 3

Jail Time For Not Paying Fines

When someone can’t pay a bill, they usually try to negotiate with the bill collector or pay as much as they can when they have money. There are some companies in Colorado Springs that are threatening people with jail if they don’t pay their bills. This is considered debtors prison, and it has been a thing of the past until recently.

Jayne Fuentes is one of the people who is unemployed and is unable to pay her fines in court that stemmed from a drug conviction. The judge gave her the option of going to jail or working on a crew to pay off her debts for the charges. She still owed almost $3,000 for another debt and was threatened once again with jail or working to pay it off. There are about 800 people who have been put in jail in Colorado who can’t pay the fines from minor charges. If someone is in jail, then they won’t be able to get a job or do anything t make money to pay the fines. Most of the people who are in jail are there because of things like a small amount of marijuana or being homeless and panhandling in order to get food. These are people who haven’t done anything major in regards to crime, but they are being punished because they can’t pay the fines that go along with the charges.